Jamboree Tackles Large Southern California Developments

A rendering of Santa Ana Veterans Village shows the exterior of Spanish Revival-style complex that will provide 75 units of subsidized housing for homeless military veterans. The project, on First Street in Santa Ana, is being developed by Jamboree Housing Corp. (For Jamboree by Architecture Design Collaborative)

By: Donna Kimura April 3, 2019 —

Jamboree is working on several notable affordable housing developments in California.

Laura Archuleta, president, Jamboree

The longtime nonprofit organization is developing Santa Ana Veterans Village, which will be the largest complex for veterans in Orange County. It will feature 75 one- and two-bedroom apartments as well as a 4,500-square-foot community center that will house a veteran services collaborative. The development will bring together the region’s leading service agencies to support residents and other veterans in the community with mental health counseling, employment services, and other critical assistance.

Scheduled to open next year, the community will utilize 75 Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers.

Jamboree is also working on the 418-unit Metro East project with The Pacific Cos. The development will deliver needed housing for seniors in Santa Ana and help ease the overcrowded living conditions many households in the city face.

The team is considering outreach to the single-family neighborhoods around the development. Many families likely have older generations living with them because the seniors can’t afford a place of their own, says Jamboree president Laura Archuleta.

“Our hope is to build housing that has an impact not just for the residents who will be living there but also the surrounding neighborhood and community,” she says.

Overall, the firm continues to build housing for the most vulnerable after adopting a goal that an overall 10% of what it builds will have a supportive housing or special-needs component.

“We’re continuing to expand our knowledge, experience, and skillset and hire new people to work on the services side,” Archuleta says. “We’ve been focusing over the last year on measuring the impact that we’re having by the housing and services that we’re providing.”

Jamboree, which owns more than 8,100 affordable housing units in 86 properties, has a robust pipeline of projects and hopes to break ground on another five projects with 837 units this year.

Donna Kimura is deputy editor of Affordable Housing Finance. She has covered the industry for more than a decade. Before that, she worked at an Internet company and several daily newspapers. Connect with Donna at dkimura@hanleywood.com or follow her @DKimura_AHF.